Copyright Protection

CASBAA participated in a July 12 seminar on copyright protection for broadcasters, organised by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Government of India held in New Delhi. CASBAA’s Executive Director – India, Anjan Mitra, presented a series of case studies on piracy of pay-TV content in the Asian hemisphere. He joined reps from the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, and other industry executives and government officials in pointing up the urgency of the piracy problem, as WIPO considers a new international treaty to protect the rights of all broadcasters. Download the CASBAA “Case Studies” presentation here.

The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) has provided an update on discussions at the December 2009 meeting of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCRR). Broadcasting Unions from around the world united at that meeting to urge WIPO to move forward on the much-delayed Broadcasting Treaty. A report on the discussions (courtesy of the ABU) can be found here. The World Broadcasting Unions also distributed a brochure, explaining to WIPO delegates why a treaty is needed, and refuting common misconceptions propagated by digital content activists. Download a copy of the brochure here.

CASBAA’s submission to this year’s USTR review of the policies and practices of Asian governments with respect to intellectual property protection noted continuing severe unremedied deficiencies in several Asian markets, including Thailand, the Philippines, China and India. At the same time, concrete actions against pay-TV piracy were observed in Indonesia, Macau and Vietnam, though many problems remain. Read the full submission here.

CASBAA told a panel of the Hong Kong legislature that digital copyright reform was taking too long. The Association urged that Hong Kong move forward now with a system of “graduated response” to deal with the massive problem of streaming pirated pay-TV content. View the submission here.

Officials from a host of governments which are members of the APEC and ASEAN groups met in December 2009 to take an in-depth look at the problem of signal piracy. The “Seminar on Signal Piracy, Regulation and Enforcement in a Converged World” heard speakers from governments and industry. Spokesmen from some governments (Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, USA) discussed legal approaches that had seen some success, while industry reps from markets around the Pacific Rim described the myriad ways that broadcast signals can be stolen and re-sold in an increasingly wired (and wireless) world. The seminar was supported by the US Patent and Trademark Office, with major input from CASBAA and our member companies.

In response to the annual US request for input on intellectual property protection in international markets, CASBAA offered views on several Asian countries. Key problems highlighted by CASBAA include piracy by provincial cable companies in Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia, as well as online piracy in China and regulatory constraints in India and Taiwan. View the entire submission here.

Following representations by CASBAA and other industry organizations, the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) recently issued a public statement clarifying the absolute necessity for TV distribution platforms to obtain the authorization of content owners/broadcasters before distributing their channels. The specific matter of the MIB’s ruling concerned “new media” platforms such as IPTV. The Ministry underlined that such platforms must respect Rule 6(3) of the Cable Television Networks Rules 1994, which requires that MSOs and cable operators must have licenses from copyright owners in order to distribute their content.

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